Conveyer



(No Model.) 7 J. M. DODGE.

GONVEYERI No. 360,341. r .x Patented Mar. 29, 1887.

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v WITNESSES: I uvmvron ATTORNEY .4%@% Y b mm m N PETERS, Pholo-Lilhogrlpller. Washington. D. C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES M. DODGE, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA,ASSIGNOR TO THE EWAR'I MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

CONVEYER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 360,341, dated March 29, 1887.

Application tiled January 24, 1887. Serial No. 225.334.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMES M. DODGE, of

' along or carried along within conveyer- -troughs by the action of flights or carriers attached to and moving a chain, from the carrier attachments of which said flights project, usually laterally of the run of the chain, and at about right angles to the line of the latter.

In the use of such chain conveyers considerable difficulty often arises in all cases in which the material is supplied to one of the troughs from any sort of feed-chutes, by reason of the liability of pieces or particles of the 5 ject of my invention.

material to lodge in the interstices of the chain and be by it carried along to subsequently interfere with the proper working of the chain over the sprocket-wheels of the conveyer apparatus. This difliculty is a fruitful source of annoyance and disaster to the machinery, especially in all cases where chain conveyers are used for handling coal and other lumpy or large-grained materials or substances; and it is to entirely overcome this defect in such conveyersused for such purposes that is the ob- To this main end and object my invention consists, essentially, in the combination, with the usual devices of such conveyers, and with the feed-chutes for supplying the coal or other material to the troughs thereof, of a means for effectually preventing the lodgment of any of the lumps of the material discharged from the feed-chutes into the conveyer-troughs in the interstices of the chain, as will'be hereinafter more fully explained, and as will be more particularly pointed out and defined in the claim of this specification.

To enable those skilled in the art to which my invention relates to understand and practice the latter, I will now proceed to more fully explain it, referring by letters to'the ac- (No model.)

1 companying drawings, which form a part of this specification, and in which I have shown myinvention carried out in that form in which I have so far successfully practiced it, and which is about the best now known to me.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a partial side elevation of the carrier-chain, the feed-chute,

veyer embracing my invention. Fig. 2 is a partial vertical transverse section of the same, but with the chain in a slightly-different po sition relatively to the feed-chute, and with the conveyer-trough added.

In both figures the same parts of the appaletter of reference.

lhe chain shown is of the cable type, and of that peculiar structure (patented to me on the 23d day of November, 1886) in which the centrally-open linksA and B are coupled together through the media of interposed bearingblocks 0, as shown. Some of the coupling and bearing blocks 0 are formed or provided with attachment devices D, to which are securely bolted, as shown, and in a well-known manner,the flights or carriers E,that travel in the troughs F of the machine and force or push along the contents of or material containedin said troughs in the usual manner.-

G is a feed-chute, such as usually or frequently employed to supply the coal or other material to becarried along within the trough F, and which, as heretofore,is arranged or'located so as to shoot or discharge a stream of material in a direction and at a locality such trough F, (widthwise of the latter,)so as to be present the resistance to the flights about centrally of the latter. In order to thus discharge the stream of coal or other material in the most desirable manner into the trough F to be thus properly acted upon by the flights E, said stream must necessarily encounter in its descent from the chute G into the trough the carrier-chain, which heretofore has operated thus a distribution of the material widthwise of the trough; but under this mode-of operation, especially with certain kinds of material,

and the separator or divider of a chain mm as to naturally strike about centrally of the,

about evenly distributed therein, and so as to there is great liability of the lodging within or I ratus will be found designated by the same to effect a sort of splitting of the stream, and

IOO

the wedging fast into the central openings of some of the chain-links of pieces or particles of the material. This difficulty I wholly obviate by the use in connection with the feedchute, and arranged intermediately of its discharge end or mouth and the carrier-ehain, of What may be termed a divider and deflector, which operates to splitthe stream of material during its passage from the chute G toward the conveyer-trough and ,to deflect the two streams thus formed away from the chain, so that few if any of the particles ofthe material will strike the chain. By preference I have in practice employed as such divider and deflector, a simple round rod of metal-such as seen at Irigidly attached at its ends to the lowerportions oftwo metallic arms,JJ,pivoted at Z to the sides of the chute G, and held in place properly by elampingscrews m, which pass first through curved slotsn in said arms J,

and thence into the side boards or pieces of the chute, this mode of securernent of said pivoted metallic arms J permitting an adjustment of the bar I, for the purpose of setting the latter (according to the character of the material and the volume and velocity of the stream thereof) so as to properly split and defiect the stream and cause one portion, 1, to just pass over and clear the chain, while the other part, 2, will pass downwardly into the trough F, close to the chain, but without striking it, all as clearly illustrated at Fig. 2 of the drawings.

It will be understood, of course, that the divider-and-deflector device may be of diit'erent form from that shown, and that it may be either adjustably supported, (which is the preferable way of arranging it,) or made a stanovel principle of construction and mode of operation of the apparatus shown and described, and hence that, therefore, such alterations may be made without departing from the spirit of my invention, the gist of which lies in the use, in connection with the conveyer mechanism and the feed-chute. of a suitable device arranged intermediate of the chain and the discharge end of the chute,and operating to split the supply-stream of material and cause it to pass in a sort of bifurcated form or condition around the chain, and at the same time into the trough F, thus avoiding the possibility of a lodgment of any of the lumps or particles of the material in the interstices of the chain.

What I therefore claim,broadly,as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination, with the trough, the conveyer-chain, and the feed-chute, (or the device from which the material is supplied to the conveyer-trough,)ofa divider and deflector which operates, as specified, to split the feed column or stream of material, so that the latter will clear the chain,-and at the same time properly enter the conveyer-trough, substantially in the manner and for the purpose hereinbefore described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 16th day of December, 1886.

JAMES M. DODGE.

In p resenee ot'-- I HARRY E. FRANK, EDWARD H. BURR. 

